OP Still in Development?
As far as I can tell, OP isn't in active development anymore. Considering the cost for servers these days, seems like someone is just using the site for a passive income.
I see a lot of "I'll forward your bug report" (actually, I'm not sure why the dev(s?) aren't just reading the bug report forum) but little to nothing in the way of announcements or plans for the past few years.
Don't get me wrong, I do like using it, and I recently had an issue and support was quick and helpful. It has a few features that make me stick with it in spite of all the other options out there (i just renewed my subscription) but it is so old and clunky and out-dated in its execution. Even this forum feels like something out of 1990 made in someone's college dorm-room... why not pop-in a modern forum widget? I have to pay to do my own CSS coding? Really? Not exactly user-friendly nor appealing to the masses...
I don't understand where everyone's subscription fees are going, considering there is no active development, integration of modern tools and standard practices -- just a lot of minor html bug-fixes. I've been using it off and on for about ten years, and except for a few minor tweaks, it's almost exactly the same as when I first started using it.
When is the last time any new features or re-designs were introduced? Or are there a lot of new things in the works, or recent additions I've just missed somehow?
Reminds me of a really famous MMO guild hosting site about 20 years ago that was the only game in town for a while, until other such services suddenly started popping up and they couldn't compete and just closed shop and disappeared with everyone's data and annual fees... Anyone remember Guild Portal?
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@Hojou,
Thanks for bringing these topics up ... let me know if there are questions or topics that you want addressed that I skipped in this reply. (Or if anyone else reading wants addressed.) I tend to be overly wordy and detailed, so I'm trying to restrain myself. : )
Yes, OP is in active development.
Here are the posts where we detail all of the updates from the preceding 3 months each quarter:
https://blog.obsidianportal.com/tag/updates/
"it is so old and clunky and out-dated in its execution"
Can you give one example, and how you would update it? I'm asking for just one so I can get an idea of what you're looking for.
What new features are you wanting that you're not seeing? Or what things are you wanting re-designed?
Obsidian Portal Developer
Not the OP, but one thing I'd love to see added/redesigned is recurring calendar entry automation. Something along the lines of pick a day of the week, a start time and end time, a location, a description, an end date for the recursion, and then check a box to set how often you'd like it to be built on the calendar (weekly, biweekly, monthly). Click build and viola, you just saved yourself from manually entering all of that info 52 times a year (or however often you play). It isn't flashy but it's convenient.
One other thing that would be nice (and was recently brought up on the Discord chat) is if the classes used on the backend (like the dashboard page and settings, etc.) were cleaned up to match the same sort of format that the frontend of the site uses so that CSS changes can be applied much more easily to the dashboard and forums.
If I had to pick one single thing that I'd love to see long-term:
I'd love the ability to create a child campaign site that is linked to an existing site. I tend to run multiple games in the same setting, it would be fantastic if the child site was able to directly link to the main site directly so that I could, in essence, build a site for my homebrew setting and then do linked sites for each individual campaign so that I don't have to port over the same data every time I want to make a new game. Bonus points if items and characters in the child sites automatically propogate to the main site. I realize that I could sort of do this now and just use external linking but that's far less convenient.
GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM
GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM
GM of Stream of Kairos
Need CSS Help? It may be covered here: Abersade's CSS Hub
@Abersade,
Ha! I love how you just jumped right in there. : )
I don't want to hijack Hojou's thread, and I have questions on each of these Feature Requests, so I created threads for each of them, and will ask the questions there. And that will enable anyone else that's interested in these features to find them easier too.
https://forums.obsidianportal.com/discussion/6695/recurring-calendar-entry-automation
https://forums.obsidianportal.com/discussion/6696/backend-css-classes
https://forums.obsidianportal.com/discussion/6697/child-campaign-sites
Obsidian Portal Developer
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Yeah, I get the whole not hijacking Hojou's thread thing. I brought up those features because the current state of some, like the classes and calendar, are examples of very antiquated approaches. The child-campaign thing was more forward-thinking oriented.
GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM
GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM
GM of Stream of Kairos
Need CSS Help? It may be covered here: Abersade's CSS Hub
Thank you for your engagement @Abersade! It's really valuable to us to have this feedback, and we take it very geniunely.
Obsidian Portal Support Druid | [email protected]
Hi @Hojou! I wanted to pop in and follow up. :)
It's important to us that our members feel heard, and most importantly - that if you are not satisfied with pricing, development/feature progression, you can always ask for a full refund of your paid history with OP, per our Refund Guarantee.
Any custom CSS you applied will stay in place and continue to be used in your campaigns, even if you choose to downgrade to a free plan, you just won't be able to edit it!
We appreciate the opportunity to improve, and will continue to do so with your feedback. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us anytime, whether it's here or through our support inbox. We love talking to you guys, and don't want anyone to feel that you're a part of an idle site sitting around collecting a paycheck! You're a part of the OP family, and we're here to make this experience a good one. :)
Obsidian Portal Support Druid | [email protected]
I will say that there have been more positive improvements to this site, active developments, in the last 2 years than any time in the last 10 years, since the Reforge disaster- so @Hojou I really disagree! I am not the OP- just someone that has used Obsidian Portal for many years now.
Just trying to help out.
Thank you @gamingmegaverse! That means so much to us!
Obsidian Portal Support Druid | [email protected]
...and I agree with @GamingMegaverse!
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Hi everyone---
I was thinking of re-subscribing for my PbP campaign. Hard to tell how active OP is now and I don't see many posts in December.
Is OP still an active place for PbP?
Thanks.
A lot of the more active conversations have moved to the Fan Discord Server https://forums.obsidianportal.com/discussion/5827/op-discord-channel#latest